The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-03-04
NO. 6.

hold in his native land. applause Doe,
not the light to live include and involve
/ tie right to the elements necessary tc
maintain life? How could a man live
without land? Utterly impossible. Oul
/ very bodies themselves are drawn from tbe
| land. We are as much the children Of the
soil as is the flower or the blade of grass.
All our production consists but in working
up the materials drawn from the land. and
without access to land labor is perfectly
helpless. Without land man can pro-
duce nothing And yet, while we call all
men free and all men equal, only some Of
us have any rights whatever to the soil of
our native country. The majority of the
children who are coming into the world in
Philadelphia. in New York. in Boston. in
Baltimore, aye in the whole United States
of America to-day have no right to live
cant, can't, unless they purchase the
right (applause1; their parents, when they
are little. and they themselves when they
grow big, unless they buy the right to live
in their native land We are disfranehis-
ing the very children who come into the
world! And by what rigla9 Good heav-
ems! Did you ever ask yourselves where
the right TO the ownership Of the land
comes; how il is that one man can say that
he owns the surface of this world. or any
part of it? The right to everything Of hu-
man production is clear. The right of
ownership to this desk, this house. goes
back to the man who produced it. rests on
the right of labor and production of labor
and the right of the man to the house.
But who made the land 2-this land that
we stand OH tonight, this land on which
is bnilt the city of Philadelphia-from
whom does the title to it Gomez Well. You
all know, all you PhiladeIphians know.
that good old William Penn bought it of
the Indians. You know the old tree:
dent know whether it is yet in exist
euce; it was when | was boy, and the
pictures used to be in all our school
books, of William Penn under that good
old tree giving the Indians some trinkets,
and some whiskey, | suppose. for all this
land of Pennsylvania. Where did the
Indians get the right to sell William
Penn this land? Suppose the Indians had
sold William Penn the SUM- think they
would have done it just as readily
Daughter and applause, would now some
people have the exclusive right to all tie
sunlight that fell on this part of the
world and be entitled to charge the rest of |
us rent for enjoying ii? Iaughter) Why,
the Indians sell the land, 1t wasn't the
Indians TO sell. As a matter of fact
though, wha. good old William Penn did
was to give the Indians little present so
as to not make trouble. The Indians didn't
understand selling land. They don't to-
day. (Laughter). They, as all primitive
races, they as our forefathers, Saxon OF
Celt, what they held is in the words of
Blackfoot, THE Great Spirit has told me
that land is not property like the property
to be bought and sold The earth is our
mother" (Applause).
Where William Penn really got the right |
to the laud was from King James the II of
England. What right had King James
the II of England to Pennsylvania, and, at
any rate, supposing he had any right at
that time, King James the II OF England
is dead, and what right has dead man to
this earth anyhow? daughter and ap-
plause.) Is it not a manifest truth, as
Thomas Jefferson said, is it not mani
fest and self-evident truth that the earth
belongs in usufruct to the living and that
the dead have no right or power to it?
And how do these titles TO the land in this
city of Philadelphia come about? We
will 20 to a lawyer, 1T belongs now to
John Doe Where did he get it?' He
got it from Richard Roe, who died some
time ago" He got it from some other
dead man, who got it from some other
dead man until you get mp to that dead
man James the Ii of England. who not
only is dead but who never set his foot in
this country anyhow. Why, the thing is
absurd. We all have equal rights to the
land OF our country. fApplause.) Every
child that is born, comes into this earth
with title from the maker Of the earth
for the use of it during his life He can't
give it away or sell it. All he can claim
and that he can claim--is the right to use
his labor upon it, to make use Of it, and
that right is equal.
Well, to get back; we all can't have the
same piece of land. Certainly not. We
can't divide the land up; but we can di-
vide up the rent II three men, or three
hundred men own ship, they would not
saw her up into three or three hundred
pieces. They would employ her and d.
vide the revenue. Thousands of men own
a railway They do not cut it up into little
pieces. That is the way we can treat our
common property, the land, tapplansel and
in that way we can assure to each one his
equal right, mot merely 10 each man, but
to each woman and to each child, 20 every
human being.
The value of land increases with the
growth OF the community. | contribute
TO it and should share it. (applausel
As DR. Thomas M,tz, the great IRISH bis
hop said This fact of the increase of land
values with the growth Of population, this
fact that while ali other values tend to de-
cline as civilization progresses the value Of
land becomes greater and greater, IS one OF
IL, nlna rnsf audiences of the hnne fcent de-